Mike Rowe

oldngray

nowhere special
No we should not. Every kid isn't meant to go to college. Some people are gifted academically and others gifted mechanically.

If you go to a HS graduation there is always the group whose attitude is "Let's party dude!" because they aren't planning to go to college and know they are finished with school.
 

DriveInDriveOut

Inordinately Right
But should we be preparing EVERY kid for college?


That's all high school is about is having the grades and right classes to get into college.


Why? Why are we forcing kids who would rather be taking a construction or welding or mechanics classes to take 4 years of English?
I'm a truck driver and I benefited greatly from English classes, I still read a lot and the things I've learned through literature and history helped me better understand the world and be a better citizen in general.

It's about striving for a better society as a whole. People complain that parents are a big part of their child's education then suggest knowledge is useless just learn a trade.

I get what you're saying, but a lot of people demonize trade skills as outdated and as being for stupid people. But a lot of people also demonize higher education as being some liberal sham to make everyone a communist. Its all nonsense.
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
I'm a truck driver and I benefited greatly from English classes, I still read a lot and the things I've learned through literature and history helped me better understand the world and be a better citizen in general.

It's about striving for a better society as a whole. People complain that parents are a big part of their child's education then suggest knowledge is useless just learn a trade.

I get what you're saying, but a lot of people demonize trade skills as outdated and as being for stupid people. But a lot of people also demonize higher education as being some liberal sham to make everyone a communist. Its all nonsense.
They each have their own group. Educating ones self is almost always going to turn out for the positive.


I'm talking about pushing kids into things they have no intrest in. We wouldn't dare say a kid who wants to be a doctor should be required to have 3 years of auto classes. So why do we require a kid who wants to be a mechanic to take 3 years of biology?
 

DriveInDriveOut

Inordinately Right
They each have their own group. Educating ones self is almost always going to turn out for the positive.


I'm talking about pushing kids into things they have no intrest in. We wouldn't dare say a kid who wants to be a doctor should be required to have 3 years of auto classes. So why do we require a kid who wants to be a mechanic to take 3 years of biology?
Well they shouldn't, but I don't know that kids do take three years of biology. High school for me was physical science, biology, chemistry, then physics. I learned a lot of valuable information. Those classes especially can be greatly beneficial to people who will go on to learn trades, which often have a lot in common with engineering sciences.

A lot of it comes down to learning how to learn. Sounds silly, but being able to learn is itself a skill a lot of people don't have, and a lower education system that teaches to the test doesn't help with that.
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
Well they shouldn't, but I don't know that kids do take three years of biology. High school for me was physical science, biology, chemistry, then physics. I learned a lot of valuable information. Those classes especially can be greatly beneficial to people who will go on to learn trades, which often have a lot in common with engineering sciences.

A lot of it comes down to learning how to learn. Sounds silly, but being able to learn is itself a skill a lot of people don't have, and a lower education system that teaches to the test doesn't help with that.
But how they learn is most often the difference in good trades students and good school students.


Good trade student learn by hands on training.
 

rod

Retired 22 years
But should we be preparing EVERY kid for college?


That's all high school is about is having the grades and right classes to get into college.


Why? Why are we forcing kids who would rather be taking a construction or welding or mechanics classes to take 4 years of English?


You would never guess they had 4 years of English by the way some post on here.
 

DriveInDriveOut

Inordinately Right
But how they learn is most often the difference in good trades students and good school students.


Good trade student learn by hands on training.
True.
I was fortunate enough to go to a good school where all of those, except physics which I almost failed, were lab classes. A lot of kids wouldnt ever see a science lab class till college. It's a shame.
 

AsweetGirl

Is No Longer Affiliated With UPS
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BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
I had two years of a 'classical liberal' college education.

I dropped out, because I had no idea what I was doing, and I just wanted to play rock and roll.

Several years later, I went back to college, got a science degree, and was quite happy. I wouldn't trade the education I received for anything.

Critical thinking skills aren't generally innate, and being challenged on your beliefs is a good thing. Learning how to learn is invaluable, and going to a trade school vs. a typical four year college doesn't change that.

I learned enough math in college to get me through...it's not my thing, and I don't enjoy it.

Kids in 'trade schools' these days probably need to learn way more computer science and math than I ever did - it's just the nature of the world.

And now I'm a well-educated truck driver.

Wasting my time posting on BC.
 

refineryworker05

Well-Known Member
In America, we have a whole political party that is anti-labor and anti- making blue collar jobs lucrative.
I remember when the auto industry was renegotiating its contract during the GWBush administration. And Fox News was constantly spewing about how much auto workers made and how they destroyed the auto industry. This kind of thinking dominates conservatives that union wages destroyed the Detroit auto industry. Instead the model for the American auto industry is contract work with no permanency and crap benefits and low wages. That's what Republicans want for those workers. Whenever those workers try to unionize you have elected US Senators and Governors threatening those workers.

That kind of sustained attack against labor is what makes blue collar jobs less valuable in America. So if Mike Rowe isn't addressing those kinds of issues, he is just peeing into the wind.
 
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